Tea bag with strip of metallic foil heat sealed to one edge thereof



April 28, 1964 J. SALOMON 3,131,065 TEA BAG WITH STRIP 0F METALLIC FOILHEAT SEALED TO ONE EDGE THEREOF Filed Feb. 13, 1961 [nuenlor Sa IOTnonttorney United States Patent 3,131,065 TEA BAG WITH STRIP 0F NETALLICFOIL HEAT SEALED TO (ONE EDGE THEREOF Jacob Saiomon, 21 Kugel Eivd,Halon, Israel Filed Feb. 13, 1961, Ser. No. 88,933 Claims priority,application Great Britain Mar. 1, 1960 2 Claims. ll. 99-771) Thisinvention concerns tea bags, i.e. packets formed of a water permeablematerial containing tea leaves and adapted to be placed in a cup, glassor other suitable receptacle (hereinafter for convenience all includedin the term cup) into which is poured boiling water.

It is usual for conventional tea bags to have attached thereto a lengthor chain of string which, when the tea bag is placed in a cup, is drapedover the lip of the cup so as to enable the bag to be readily removedfrom the cup when desired. Such bags suffer from the disadvantages thatthe attachment of the string to the bag, which is achieved either bysewing or stapling, requires relatively complex and expensive machineryand that the string acts in the manner of a wick and liquid from the cuptravels along the string and drips from the end thereof outside the cup.

Tea bags have also been produced in which the length of string isreplaced by a paper strip. Although such a strip may more easily beapplied to the tea bag, liquid is absorbed by the strip and this, likethe string, acts in the manner of a wick causing dripping of the liquidoutside the cup.

It is an object of this invention to provide a new or improved tea bagin which the above-mentioned disadvantages are reduced or eliminated.

In the tea bag according to this invention, I use in place of theconventional string a shorter strip of a nonabsorbent material which isflexible to the extent that it may be bent over upon itself, but resistsdeformation to the extent that it retains its bent form. An eminentlysuitable material for the said strip is aluminium, or other suitablemetal, foil.

A strip of material as above defined does not act as a wick when the teabag is immersed in liquid in the cup and has the advantage that it maybe folded over the lip of the cup to hold the bag firmly in the latterduring infusion of the tea or alternatively be wrapped around the handleof a tea spoon to hold the tea bag firmly adjacent the bowl of thelatter so as to be removable with the spoon after using the latter tostir the liquid in the cup.

The strip is preferably the same length as the bag and may be attachedby its ends to opposite end edges of the bag, the strip being readilytorn or severed near one end to provide the necessary free end forfolding over the lip of a cup or wrapping around the handle of a spoon.It is, however, convenient for only one end of the strip to be attachedto the tea bag, i.e. to an end edge thereof, as this facilitates thesubsequent use of the bag. It is found that in this latter case thestrip, because of its semi-rigid nature, is not likely to becomeentangled with the strips of other tea bags during packing and transportas occurs with the strings of conventional bags. The strip may beattached to the edge of the bag by heat-seal- The tea bags of thepresent invention can be made by conventional tea bag making machinesprovided with a simple modification. Thus according to a further aspectof the invention there is provided a method of making tea bagscomprising enclosing tea leaf in an envelope of water permeable materialand simultaneously closing the envelope and attaching thereto by a heatsealing op eration a strip of non-absorbent material which is flexibleto the extent that it may be bent over upon itself, but

r 3,131,065 Patented Apr. 28, 1964 resists deformation to the extentthat it retains its bent form. Preferably the envelopes are formed bydoubling over a longitudinally moving web of the water permeablematerial and intermittently feeding tea leaf into the doubled web sothat pockets of tea are held in the web, and, after simultaneouslysealing the strip to the web and closing the doubled portions of the webtogether to form the envelopes, cutting the Web and the strip betweenthe pockets to form individual tea bags.

The invention is described, merely by way of example, with reference tothe accompanying drawing, in which:

FIGURE 1 shows a tea bag according to the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a view similar to FIGURE 1 showing an alternative form ofthe invention;

FIGURE 3 is a diagrammatic view showing one use of the invention; and

FIGURE 4 is a diagrammatic view showing another use of the invention.

Referring to the drawings the tea bag comprises a bag or envelope 1 ofwater permeable material e.g. paper, containing tea leaf 9 and providedwith a strip of aluminium foil 2. In the tea bag of FIGURE 1 both ends 3and 4 of the strip are attached to the bag 1 while in the embodimentshown in FIGURE 2 only one end of the strip is attached to the bag whilethe other end 5 is left free.

FIGURE 3 shows a tea bag according to the invention suspended in a cup 6by the strip of aluminium foil 2. With the tea bag of FIGURE 2 the foil2 can be quite simply bent to form the hook for supporting this bag fromthe rim of the cup. When using the tea bag of FIGURE 1, however, one endof the strip 2 must first be torn or otherwise separated from the bag 1so that the tea bag can be used as shown in FIGURE 3 or 4.

FIGURE 4 shows the tea bag being used with the aluminium foil strip 2wrapped around the lower part of the handle of a spoon 7. This method ofuse is particularly useful when the tea bag is being used with a deepglass or beaker 8 since the spoon enables the tea bag to be taken to thebottom of the glass and stirred thoroughly to infuse the tea.

The strip can readily be attached to the tea bag during the manufactureof the latter without the use of expensive and complex equipment.Conventional tea bags are generally formed by feeding from a roll a webof material, e.g. paper, used to form the packet, doubling this weblongitudinally over upon itself, feeding tea intermittently from afeeder post while the web moves so that separate pockets of tea are heldin the web, feeding the doubled web through heat sealing rollers to heatseal the doubled web around the tea pockets therein to form linkedpackets and cutting the web between the packets to form individual teabags. The strip of a tea bag according to this invention may readily andautomatically be attached to an edge of the packet by the sealing operation and only a relatively simple modification to existing tea bagmaking machines has to be made to enable the strip to be fed to eachpacket at the appropriate stage in its manufacture, this modificationbeing to provide the machine with a roll of strip which may be drawnthrough the machine automatically with the said web. The sealing rollersmay conveniently be corrugated or knurled in order to facilitate thesealing together of the doubled web and the aluminium foil strip.

Conventional tea bags are usually a substantially flat rectangularpacket of a size of the order of 2%" by 2". I have found that a strip ofmetal foil, advantageously aluminium foil, having a width of the orderof /2" and a thickness of the order of 25 to 40 microns and extendingbetween the two shorter edges of the rectangle, i.e. having a length ofthe order of 2 /2" or less, is adequate to give the required support tothe bag. In bags employing a chain of string, it is necessary for thischain to have a length of the order of 3 /2" and to be provided at itsfree end with a cardboard or stilt paper tab. In bags using a paperstrip, such strip is required to have a length of the order of 4".

The strip of a tea bag according to this invention may, in addition toits primary function, be used, e.g. by being embossed or printed, tocarry data denoting the manufacturers of the tea leaf and/ or the typeor trade name of the latter and/or any other informatory or advertisingdata. 7

I claim:

1. A tea bag comprising a substantially fiat closed Water permeablecontainer, tea leaves contained in said container and a tab comprising aplanar strip of metallic .4 foil having an end face and superimposed onsaid container and having said end face heat sealed to a substantiallycoplanar edge of said water permeable container, said strip having athickness not greater than 40 microns and a length substantially thesame as the length of said water permeable container.

2. A tea bag as claimed in claim 1, wherein said tab comprises a lengthof aluminum foil.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS634,349 Humphrey Oct. 3, 1899 1,665,080 Abbott Apr. 3, 1928 1,677,397Mock July 17, 1928 2,192,605 Salfishberg Mar. 5, 1940 2,362,460 BarnettNov. 14, 1944

1. A TEA BAG COMPRISING A SUBSTANTIALLY FLAT CLOSED WATER PERMEABLE CONTAINER, TEA LEAVES CONTAINED IN SAID CONTAINER AND A TAB COMPRISING A PLANAR STRIP OF METALLIC FOIL HAVING AN END FACE AND SUPERIMPOSED ON SAID CONTAINER AND HAVING SAID END FACE HEAT SEALED TO A SUBSTANTIALLY COPLANAR EDGE OF SAID WATER PERMEABLE CONTAINER, SAID STRIP HAVING A THICKNESS NOT GREATER THAN 40 MICRONS AND A LENGTH SUBSTANTIALLY THE SAME AS THE LENGTH OF SAID WATER PERMEABLE CONTAINER. 